Escape

Robert Taylor is in Nazi Germany in search of his mother, a former prominent stage actress played by silent screen star Alla Nazimova. He meets a whole bunch of people in his quest, some who help and some who hinder. One of them is an expatriate American Norma Shearer who is the widow of a German Count and now involved with an Army General played by Conrad Veidt.

Essentially that's the plot of Escape and a clever plot is hatched to help Nazimova escape from a concentration camp. With a few unexpected curves thrown in the way and a not so happy ending for two of the principals, you can probably figure the rest of it out.

The most interesting character in the film is Conrad Veidt. He's a whole lot like the character Burt Lancaster played in Judgement at Nuremberg. A man who has disdain for the Nazis, but when they succeed in gaining power, he accomodates himself to the new regime as did so many in the German Armed Forces. But for something that happens to him in the film, I can see Veidt before the bar of justice at Nuremberg after World War II.

Robert Taylor plays a 20th century version of Armand Duval, the part he successfully played opposite Greta Garbo in Camille. It's another role as a callow youth. He was getting old for those kind of parts and I think upon seeing him in Escape, MGM realized this. Taylor would be getting more mature parts from then on.

Norma Shearer is the American girl essentially trapped by her now noble title in Germany. She's turned her spacious living quarters into a girl's school and she's living a genteel life, but one filled with anxiety. Eventually she has to choose between Taylor and Veidt and at the end of the film, fate makes the choice for her.

Veidt and Shearer do the best jobs here. Taylor was now 29 and not suited for the Armand kind of part anymore. Still he does a good job and others to watch for are the ever dependables Alfred Basserman, Felix Bressart and Phillip Dorn.

MGM was among the first studios to treat the impending war with films like IDIOT'S DELIGHT (1939) and THE MORTAL STORM (1940); another such effort, despite its generic moniker, was ESCAPE. As with the former, it was apparently a Leslie Halliwell favourite – maybe he had a particular fondness for Norma Shearer, since she stars in both!

This is the superior film, however, given its early depiction of a concentration camp and the suspense inherent in the title. Shearer's co- star here is yet another silver-screen heart-throb and MGM fixture, Robert Taylor, though – unlike Gable in the afore-mentioned IDIOT'S DELIGHT – his relentless seriousness renders him a dull lead (only really coming into his own when breaking into the Nazi salute as he complains "I've had it up to here!" and again towards the end in his confrontation scenes with nominal villain Conrad Veidt). The latter, fine as always, plays a character somewhere between his sympathetic German of the Powell & Pressburger films THE SPY IN BLACK (1939) and CONTRABAND (1940) and the full-fledged Nazi he memorably essayed in CASABLANCA (1942). His initial disapproval of the brutal regime tactics eventually makes way for a compulsive adherence to duty (though a heart condition ultimately proves his undoing – ironically, the actor would himself succumb to this affliction within three years!).

He begins to suspect that his lover (Shearer) may have forsaken him for Taylor – who has been making a nuisance of himself while tracking down his mother (Silent star Nazimova), a former theatrical celebrity but whose misguided attempts at helping German refugees have landed her in a death camp. Thanks to an admiring doctor, she is induced to a comatose state, so that she can then be ostensibly transported to a proper burial ground (accorded her once-respected stature) – but Taylor is forced to seek shelter along the way in Shearer's home, which also serves as a finishing school for girls (who, as in IDIOT'S DELIGHT, seem to consider a dashing military career as the epitome of romance!).

The film has the expected gloss and entertainment value of a typical MGM product but, as I said, reasonable tension is also elicited out of its 'premature burial' situation and the unorthodox resolution of the obligatory love triangle at the finale (of which, as in the earlier Shearer picture, two versions were filmed and are compared in a "You Tube" clip).

Just stumbled upon this movie tonight. Quite a gem.

Lots of emotions involved in this movie, considering it is a son trying to save his mother from an undeserved fate. Nice acting by Taylor and Shearer, and Veidt does well as the ominous and ever-present antagonist.

What I really liked about this movie is the timing of its making. It is before average American's really knew about Hitler and Nazi's, and well before Pearl Harbor, and America's entry into the war.

Yet, it shows in a magnificently subdued way the political climate of the time, without ever mentioning Germany or Nazi's.

Keep in mind, if you watch this movie, that the actors, directors, and producers knew nothing of the horrors the Nazi's would ultimately do.

Seeing movies like this one makes me wonder what people were thinking at the time. Could the holocaust have been prevented? Is there something going on right now that we should take notice of, and maybe prevent? In summary, I say watch this movie, and try and put yourself in 1938 while watching. The movie has to be viewed from that perspective to fully appreciate it.

As a Norma Shearer fan, I looked for this movie for years and finally found it on TCM (hail the great god, Ted Turner!). First of all, I was surprised to find a movie made so early in the years of WW2 that actually brought up the topic of concentration camps, and the reason why Robert Taylor's mother is to be executed (she helped Jewish refugees leave for America -- "Jew" is never mentioned, but it is obvious). The performances are top-notch, and it was nice to see Nazimova toning down her usual grande dame-isness. I've never been a Robert Taylor fan, but this movie has one of his best performances as he alternately bucks authority in the good old American way and puts up with the Nazi-Gestapo badgering. Norma Shearer is fine, even though her role is small, and her scenes with Conrad Veidt (playing her Nazi suitor) are very effective. You can see her democratic side gradually gaining strength against Veidt's facism as she sees more and more of Taylor and his own dilemma makes her question her present beliefs. It's a must-see.

This relatively unknown star vehicle is unusual for a number of different reasons. Although top billed, MGM Studio Queen, Norma Shearer's role is substantially smaller than co-star Robert Taylor's heroic turn as an American son desperately attempting to save his mother from a German Concentration camp. His mother is wonderfully played (and occasionally overplayed) by Nazimova, one of the great theatrical legends of the early 20th century. It's an interesting footnote, that it was Irving Thalberg who helped cut short the meretricious Nazimova's strange film career while his widow, Shearer, graciously allowed the former star to appear to great advantage in one of Shearer's last screen appearances. Conrad Veidt plays Shearer's Nazi lover and while he appears as icy and unyielding as he would two years later in "Casablanca", his character is softened somewhat by his un-disclosed illness and by Shearer's devotion to him. This film was one of the few made in Hollywood prior to the war which was openly critical of the Nazis (although they do hedge their bets by having a sympathetic German doctor, which gives the impression that more than a few intelligent German's disagreed with the Nazis. Significantly, this character does appear in full Nazi drag towards the end of the picture). Robert Taylor is given a very tricky part to play as a man determined to save his mother against all odds. With his masculine demeanor and his controlled sensitivity he gives a performance of great passion and conviction. Norma Shearer, looking regally beautiful and every bit the Countess, manages to convey the situation of a woman who desperately wants to help Taylor and leave her adopted country, but realizes that she must stay out of duty to Veidt, in spite of her true feelings. Felix Bressart also appears as the Nazimova's frightened but faithful servant, who helps Taylor escape. Bressart, who made a career of playing befuddled foreigners, is best known as one of the three Russian Communists in Ninotchka. Interesting casting was Bonita Granville, best known as the screen's all-American girl detective, Nancy Drew, here playing the role of a pro-Nazi student at Miss Shearer's finishing school (she would play a similar role in 1943's wartime propaganda film, "Hitler's Children"). The film was sumptuously mounted and stylishly directed by Mervyn Leroy the same year as he directed "Waterloo Bridge" also starring Taylor with Vivien Leigh. "Escape" is effective, at times shocking, but always vastly entertaining. Interesting footnote: Norma Shearer would turn down "Pride & Prejudice" and "Mrs. Miniver" both of which would turn Greer Garson into an MGM star much in the the same vein as Miss Shearer. Norma Shearer's last film, "Her Cardboard Lover" would also be opposite Robert Taylor.